Smith: Bernie has no plans to stop masquerading as an ‘independent’

By Todd Smith | The Caledonian Record

To the surprise of precisely no one, “Independent” Senator Bernie Sanders has announced for reelection to a third term in the U.S. Senate.

Todd Smith

Todd M. Smith is the publisher of the Caledonian Record.

In a message to constituents, Sanders ran through his well-worn “democratic socialist” shtick (without naming it as such): “Medicare for all, a $15/hour living wage, free college tuition at public colleges and universities and the reduction of student debt, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, fighting climate change and promoting racial, social and environmental justice.”

At the same time he decried these evils: the “right-wing extremist, Republican Congress attempt to throw up to 32 million Americans off of the health care they have, give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the richest people in our country and the largest corporations, destroy environmental legislation, work aggressively to deny women the right to control their own bodies and end net neutrality.”

He also asked recipients to make a $3 donation to his campaign. Even with no serious opponent, Bernie apparently believes that his $6.9 million war chest might not be enough to put him over the top. So he wants more, especially from people who can’t afford more than $3.

It’s clear Bernie has no plans to stop masquerading as an “independent.” The lifetime politician is sitting chair of the Democratic Senate Caucus Outreach Committee, which you can bet won’t encourage anyone to run for office as an “independent.”

This also is the same “independent” who sought the presidential nomination of a party he refuses to belong to, and may well do so again (when he’s 78).

This is an “independent” who organizes his supporters to vote in the primary of the party he won’t belong to, in order to give him the Democratic nomination for re-election. Then he will politely decline the nomination he organized people to deliver to him. That way no real Democrat can get on the ballot and jeopardize Bernie’s chances of winning in November as an “independent.”

Whatever one may think about Bernie Sanders’ “democratic socialism” agenda, the myth of his “independence” has long since succumbed to his lust for the easiest path to a lifetime job in Washington as America’s fiercest apostle of democratic (small d) socialism.

Over the next month Bernie will hold spaghetti dinners and local rallies around the state, to remind voters that he’s the Senator from Vermont. Then, facing no reelection threat here at home, he’ll disappear around the country with his $6.9 million war chest to urge voters in other states to elect Bernie-clones, running on the ticket of the party he won’t belong to because he’s an “independent.”

Bernie Sanders will never make anyone’s list of Great Statesman, but he sure ranks on top of our list of Great Self-Serving Hypocrites.

Todd M. Smith is the publisher of the Caledonian Record, where this editorial first appeared. He lives in St. Johnsbury.

Images courtesy of U.S. Senate and Todd Smith

14 thoughts on “Smith: Bernie has no plans to stop masquerading as an ‘independent’

  1. George – his wife is taking after him -she is under federal investigation for borrowing money which could not be repaid and wound up bankrupting Burlington College ( which she headed) . The entire college had to close down as a result.

    • “his wife is taking after him -she is under federal investigation for borrowing money which could not be repaid and wound up bankrupting Burlington College ( which she headed) . The entire college had to close down as a result.”

      Ah the virtues of Socialism/Communism os is it just thievery.

  2. Let’s see Bernard Sanders ( I ) VT that ran as a ” Democrat ” in his Presidential run like they
    were going to let this ” buffoon ” in their country club…..they had a Queen !!

    Bernie why not run as a Socialist, we understand your agenda, but wait there a stigma with it so you label your self as an independent, what Hypocrite!

    So this New Yorker who is now a 1%’er, one of those that Bernie states he disdains, what a fool. He’s the laughing stock in the Political World.

    Vermont, you get what you deserve when you vote this clown in. Suckers.

  3. Ask Bernie how much time he expects to spend working for Vermonters in Washington while he is running for President during the first two years of his next term as US Senator.

    Ask Bernie why he rants & rails against the evil Conservative Koch Brothers, yet ignores the tremendous wealth & influence on policy of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund & the Rockefeller Family Trust.

    Ask Bernie how he expects to pay for free education, health care, minimum wage increases, subsidies to economically inefficient alternative energy technologies, while creating massive debt.

    Ask Bernie how allowing the unelected Globalist Elite to rule the world & re-distribute America’s wealth will help everyday working Vermont families.

    Ask Bernie. These are basic questions. I await hearing his explanations.

  4. “Socialism of any type leads to a total destruction of the human spirit.”

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  5. It’s not fair to label Bernie a Communist. Like socialists of all stripes, he is clearly a disciple of Karl Marx, but of the “democratic socialist” variety, originating with Eduard Bernstein in the 1880s, that eschews Marx’s armed revolution to expropriate the expropriators. He did run as a presidential elector for the Socialist Workers Party in 1980, winning 76 votes. The SWP was founded c1938 after its members were essentially expelled from the U.S. socialist movement for being Trotskyite revolutionaries. The SWP had big policy differences with the Moscow-financed Communist Party of the USA, which like the CP of the USSR was anti-Trotsky. (Some historians have made careers of classifying the endless varieties of socialists, just in the US.)

  6. After not having a second senator for the last pres. election, while Bernie kept his Senator Salary and perks, and bought an expensive third home………..

    Now he wants us to finance his next dream of POWER, while he takes his salary, staff, and so much more from the taxpayer.

  7. Other than periodically blustering about free college, free healthcare, and $15.00 an hour minimum wage, what in hell has this old communist done for anybody in all of his years in Washington? Yes, he got a couple of post offices named. Mr Sanders, in light of the need for foreign workers in agriculture, and the massive illegal immigrant problem, what legeslation have you authored to address these issues? Have you done anything about our massive, out of control, national debt? Have you submitted any legeslation to improve our failing public schools? Did you make any effort to lower the tax burden of working Americans or did you vote against this just because it was a Trump agenda? Our national infrastructure is failing. Where is your leadership on this issue? Our dairy farms are failing due to plunging milk prices. How have you addressed this issue? Donald Trump has worked to bring corporations and jobs back to America. Did you? Donald Trump has forced renegotiation of trade treaties with our major trading partners in order to make life better and fairer for Americans. Please tell me why you haven’t supported him in this effort? Bernie, have you done anything other than get rich and promote yourselft and your book in the past 7 years? Looks to me like Vermont has had a useless old bag of wind as it’s Senator (or Senators) and it’s time to put you out to pasture!

  8. Why doesn’t Sanders call himself what he is: a Communist. His base won’t leave him. They too are Communists and if not, are too dumb to know what a Communist is.

    • No, Sanders is a Socialist
      Under socialism everything is owned by the government and people get paid badges on their merit.
      Under communism everything is owned by the government, and people share EQUALLY.
      BECAUSE SANDERS HAS THREE HOUSES AND A FOUNDATION HE IS A SOCIALIST, NOT A COMMUNIST, ALTHOUGH HE MAY WISH OTHERS TO COMMUNISTS. EXCEPT HIM AND HIS FAVORED FRIENDS

  9. And he has got a foundation paying all his expenses to prove it.
    He has been learning from the Clintons.

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